The invention relates generally to the field of manufacturing and processing fiber optic cables, and more particularly to a fiber optic connector fiber stub remover and method.
The process of manufacturing the fiber optic light and signal transmitting element that carries the light and goes into fiber optic cable is well known and is largely automated. Extremely low attenuation rates allow optical cables to carry a high density of information with negligible error rates or the need for repeaters. For convenience of handling and ease of use, such as for connection to other devices and components, releasable connectors are positioned at the terminal ends of the optical fibers cables. The optical fibers pass through the connectors and are permanently affixed in place, e.g., by epoxy or other materials that pot the optical fibers in a plastic, composite, or Zirconia ferrule connector. In the final assembly, the terminal ends of the optical fibers will be finished to be flat, conical, or angled, but in all cases, free from imperfections so that when the fiber optic cables are connected to devices or other cables, the transmission of the optical signal will not be impeded.
During the manufacture of optical fiber connections, after the fiber is glued into the fiber optic connection, the fiber stub must be cleaved near the epoxy bead. This leaves fiber stubs that must then be removed before the optical fiber connections can be mounted to a polishing machine. Failure to do these two steps correctly can result in chips and cracks in the fiber, rendering them useless and in need of replacement. The position of the cut must be very precise and the cuts are never perfect and free from imperfections. Anything less near perfection is not good enough and therefore during the manufacturing process, after the optical fibers are cut, they must be further trimmed to be shorter and close to the bead of epoxy potted in the connector. If the optical fibers are too long when the polishing process begins, the optical fibers can easily bend and distort, preventing the ends from being processed as needed.
These steps noted above are very delicate, and there remains a substantially amount of handwork. Indeed, the process of manufacturing fiber optic cables involves numerous steps and remains labor intensive. The current industry practice in the manufacturer of fiber optic cables is to cut the optical fiber at a point relatively close to the point at which it protrudes from the connector and bead of epoxy potted in the plastic connector. This is typically done using a sharp knife, such as with a sapphire tip knife. Thereafter, a technician will take a small section of abrasive film, such as polishing or lapping film, bow it out towards the optical fiber, and gentle sand the optical fiber in a circular manner until the tip is very close to the bead of epoxy. In the industry, they refer to this process as fiber optic connector fiber stub removal.
At this point, the optical fiber cable is ready for polishing, and the technician will mount the optical fiber cable via its connector to a polishing machine. After polishing, then the ends of the optical fiber are inspected for quality control, and only those that pass the inspection are placed in use.
While there is automated equipment for polishing the ends of the fiber optic cable, to the inventor's knowledge, there are no automated devices or methods for fiber optic connector fiber stub removal.